The Importance of Privacy in the Digital Age 

Keeping your information secure is now more important than ever before

Nearly everyone has skeletons in their closet that could devastate their reputation if exposed to the public.  However, the seemingly neutral and insignificant details of our lives have just as much potential to be dangerous if placed into the wrong hands.  Information has never been as accessible as in our current age of technology, and anything we wish to research can be found with a few clicks.  However, this also means intimate details of our lives, including our addresses, social security numbers, phone numbers, and/or email accounts can be leaked and spread online.  Without our knowledge, online predators can find these details and use them to dox, impersonate, or steal from us, putting our lives and wealth at stake.  

Clearing your browser history can help protect your information

To keep such things from happening, we must use utmost caution when using the web.  It is recommended to clear your browser history at least once a month according to the fiber internet company Tachus. This could be “damage control“ if your device is hacked as it would give your hackers access to less of your information.  It can also make your computer run faster, so try clearing your history if you’re experiencing issues on your device!

Additionally, do not allow websites to accept cookies whenever you are able to elect against it.  “Cookies“ are another word for your personal data that websites can sell to third parties without your knowledge.  Prior to this year, I had never known how potentially harmful sharing your cookies could be.  In seeking to avoid the annoying pop-ups, I’d never hesitated to accept the cookies on any of the multitude of websites that I used.  Countless Americans have fallen into the same trap, unknowingly sharing personal aspects of their lives with strangers who had bought their data.  

It can also be useful to create a fake email account to avoid scammers from reaching you and to prevent excessive spam emails.  Personally, I like to sign up for any free rewards programs that I can in the hopes of saving money later on.  However, these types of programs always require me to register my email with the company.  In order to keep my personal information safe, I have a separate account under a fake name for whenever I need to register for something unimportant or potentially sketchy.  

Finally, use common sense online and don’t give strangers access to your personal information.  If you must give sensitive information to a website, make sure that you trust the site.  Putting your information into the wrong hands could have disastrous consequences, so trust your gut when a website doesn’t seem quite right.